As a form of escape from work, school, personal drama, and the rest of life’s problems, I often turn to social media platforms such as Twitter or Tiktok to give myself a brief respite from my responsibilities.
Distracting myself from my own problems often has caused me to fall down the rabbit hole of doom scrolling. Doom scrolling refers to the act of mindlessly scrolling through negative and upsetting online media, despite the adverse effects on our mental health. Just like that, I am fully engrossed in disheartening and frustrating news about tragedies and injustices outside of my bubble.
I have been trapped in this cycle for the past few months until I made some recent changes. My goal was to balance the presence of positivity and important social issues on my social media feeds. Some strategies that I have used to avoid hours spent on unnecessary doom scrolling include:
#1: Following art and music accounts:
Something about watching others create artwork or sing beautifully fills me with such good energy. Of course, feel-good content is not limited to these types of accounts. You should fill your feed with anything that unfailingly improves your mood.
#2: Setting limits on the amount of time spent on social media:
Once you start doom scrolling, it becomes quite difficult to stop. A way that I cut this action short is by setting up screen time limits on my phone so I do not spend hours on depressing content.
#3: Setting up a group chat specifically for memes and funny videos:
I made this arrangement with a group of friends after a conversation about our shared experiences with online negativity. This group chat has been particularly helpful in brightening up our feeds if they become too bleak. The videos and memes can also provide some much-needed chuckles throughout the day when they’re not being used to cheer up your feed.
Although it is important to stay informed on global issues, it is equally as important to give yourself a break from bad news. Hopefully, these tips can assist you in injecting some positivity into your social media feed.